![]() The legendary names of Silicon Valley are well known, and for the most part, the men behind the names look like this: geeky, in jeans and T-shirt, maybe with a hoodie, maybe shaving, maybe a college dropout, coding since early pubescence in the upper-middle-class parental basement. Settle worked at The Mayfield Fund, among the oldest VC firms in tech, before moving on to co-found a VC firm named Greycroft Partners. They told investors their project was the next Pinterest-the way screenwriters tell movie moguls their scripts are the next Titanic.ĭana Settle is pictured age 27 at a meeting at the Mayfield Fund in 2000. They attracted interest at five large technology companies, including Twitter. They had 1,500 clients wait-listed for a beta launch. They found pro bono lawyers with startup expertise, signed contracts, designed and revised their PowerPoint pitch a dozen times and met with more than 50 potential investors. In the ensuing months, the pair eschewed new clothes, walked instead of Ubered and assembled a small, mostly unpaid staff. The new digs mercifully provided free food. It was a small sum, but the entrepreneurs quit their jobs the next day, setting up camp in a donated corner of another startup's loft office above San Francisco's Union Square. The programmer toiled at the computer, coaxing an algorithm, often alone.įour months later, the hustler won the project's first investor, a woman who works at one the world's biggest hedge funds. The savvy talker, who had worked in communications at Citigroup and Thomson Reuters, joined professional clubs, sought out older advisers, arranged meetings and worked at creating buzz that just might pique investors. That summer, they would keep their day jobs at media and advertising companies, but devote many off-hours and weekends to the startup. That afternoon, over lunch in the California sun, they committed to an ambitious business plan. It might even be disruptive, as they say. It addressed a well-known problem, one that afflicts the tech industry but also banking, media, advertising and film. They had been emailing each other about the idea for months, with growing conviction of its awesome potential. One was a passionate, fast-talking New Yorker, the other a shy computer whiz from Syracuse, New York, and together they formed the classic hacker-hustler team behind many of the valley's Next Big Things. Like most 28-year-olds in Silicon Valley, they had smarts and dreams. ![]() On a spring afternoon last year at an outdoor café in San Francisco, two denizens of the tech community sketched out their strategy for a startup. Kleiner Perkins had sought $865,000.Business Silicon Valley Tech Industry Women in Tech Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn has issued a tentative ruling that Pao should pay $276,000 to her old firm to cover legal costs. She had lost her case, but many felt she had won in the court of public opinion, after generating a real and frank conversation about gender in Silicon Valley. Pao’s trial ended when a jury of six men and six women decided in favor of the firm. ![]() ![]() This led many people to question Pao’s motives and the timing of her suit. On the sidelines, another drama was developing involving Pao’s husband, Buddy Fletcher, who was also beset by legal troubles, including a lawsuit he brought against the swanky apartment building where he lived in New York City and a bankruptcy at the hedge fund he ran. Kleiner had its own version of the story, including reports of Pao’s poor performance, her sense of entitlement, and the fact that she was not perceived as a team player. There were allegations of unwanted sexual advances, all-male ski trips and uncomfortable conversations about pornography, as well as claims of retaliation against her for ending a relationship with a married coworker.Īt one point, Pao said, she was told by a colleague, “ Women kill the buzz.” Over the course of several weeks in one of the most closely watched tech trials in history, jurors heard sordid details of the alleged bad behavior that prompted Pao to file the suit, seeking as much as $100 million in damages. What transpired over her seven years at the Silicon Valley giant, before Pao was eventually fired in 2012, reads like a soap opera.
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